


Play to Ease Anxiety

by winterknight1087



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety, Food mention, Gen, One mention of death, Stardew Valley - Freeform, cursing, it supposedly chased Roman, mention of goose with a knife, no death though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:33:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23407600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterknight1087/pseuds/winterknight1087
Summary: Thomas finds Virgil a game called Stardew Valley to try and ease his anxiety.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 53





	Play to Ease Anxiety

Thomas groaned as he yanked the pillow out from under him and smushed it against his face, trying to stop the anxious thoughts. Finally, he got up, knowing that just laying there wouldn’t solve anything. So, Thomas took a seat at his laptop, wondering what he could do to help calm Virgil. Thomas may have needed a nap, but Virgil needed help first.

Thomas messaged a couple of his friends, asking for something to help his anxious side relax. For the most part, the advice wasn’t all that helpful: breathe, avoid caffeine, exercise… Yeah, sure, they were all valid advice, but Thomas could tell that those wouldn’t ease the anxious side this time.

As he was about to start Googling ideas, a final message arrived, suggesting that he play a calming game, with a couple of suggestions: Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Minecraft, or phone games with the word idle in them. Thomas knew Virgil would refuse to play Minecraft, just because ‘do you know what playing that would do to my image?’ He also figured that phone games would be out as he found them a bit mindless, which didn’t really help stop anxious thoughts. With that, Thomas pulled up Animal Crossing. Of course, it being 60 bucks, that made that game a bit unreasonable for right now. He did scribble a note to himself to discuss including it in his budget with Logan as he now wanted to play it himself. With that, he looked up Stardew Valley. It was much cheaper than Animal Crossing, so there was that. It looked to be some farming game. Maybe…

****

Virgil sat on the couch, trying to calm his head. Too many things were stressing him out and even blasting his music– so loud that if he were a real human, his hearing would be gone within the hour–he still could hear his thoughts. Nothing was working and he knew that he was probably affecting Thomas, but that just added to his list of stuff.

A hand gently tapped his shoulder, jolting him off of the couch, teetering on a panic attack. Thomas motioned the side’s headphones as Virgil started trying to regulate his breathing. The side didn’t want to take them off and hear the lecture about controlling his anxiety better and how he was failing Thomas, but he also knew that he deserved it. He knew this was going to be coming since he woke up this morning with that feeling of ‘everything is wrong.’

“Sorry, Virge. I didn’t mean to scare you like that. You weren’t responding to me waving a hand in front of you though.” Thomas said, gently.

“Just get it over with, Thomas. I know I’m failing and it’s a bad day and I’m sorry but that isn’t good enough and I should be able to handle this better but I can’t and…”

“Hey, hey. Take a deep breath, Vee. This isn’t bad. I know it’s not your fault. You’re struggling just as much as I am with this.”

Virgil was close to tears. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s OK, you don’t need to apologize. Here, this is what I wanted to show you.”

Virgil accepted the laptop Thomas offered him, wondering what new horror was about to be added to his list. Instead, it was some load screen with ‘Stardew Valley’ on it. Virgil looked at his host in confusion, wondering what he was supposed to be panicking about regarding this.

“It’s a farming game. Talyn recommended it to me and I thought you could use the distraction. The Internet seems to like it and it isn’t Minecraft. I even saw that one of the NPCs smokes pot, another likes spooky places, and there are these little candy things that are excited if you give them an ear of corn so are essentially Patton.”

“Oh…” Virgil wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with this. “And you gave me your new game because…?”

“Music isn’t helping you, so maybe a game can! If you don’t want to play, it’s OK, but it’s an idea at least.”

Virgil looked at the laptop. “Are you sure?”

“About the game helping? Well, no but it’s something we can try.”

“No, about lending me your laptop? What if I drop it or accidentally download something icky and break it or…”

“Hey, breathe. I know you guys said that whatever I have on my laptop, you guys get on yours within the mindscape, so you should have it on yours. So, I guess if you want to go grab your laptop, you can, but I figured that this would be easiest for you as you don’t have to lose sight of me while anxiety is trying to list every bad thing that has a high chance of never happening.”

“Oh…”

“So, you going to play?” Thomas asked, playfully nudging his anxious side.

Virgil shifted so he was sure he wouldn’t accidentally drop his host's laptop before hitting the new button. He went through the character design page and watched the scene with the grandfather. Then the game opened and he started figuring out how the game mechanics worked.

Thomas smiled as he watched the anxious side plant some parsnips before heading into town to start meeting people. Not even five minutes into the game, the host could feel the knot in his stomach vanish and he finally felt relaxed.

“So?”

“Shut up, Sanders. I have parsnips to water.”

Thomas laughed but watched the anxious side play for a it longer. He waited until the side was halfway through the month without another shoot of anxiety hitting him before deciding that he could go take his nap now. Virgil waved him off, as he harvested parsnips from the little patch outside his cabin.

Virgil wasn’t aware of how much time in real life passed before Patton’s voice intruded on his new mental lists of things he needed to do in the game. “Hey there, kiddo! You doing alright?”

“Hey, Pat. Yeah, I’m chill.”

“Is that Thomas’s laptop? Whatcha doing with it?” Patton asked, curiously.

“He downloaded a game for me and now I’m playing it.”

“Oooh! Can I watch!?”

“Sure.”

Patton jumped into the seat next to his best friend. The game looked cute and Virgil seemed to have put a lot of work into his little farm already. Patton cuddled in close and watched. The Flower Dance was his favorite part as Virgil moved into the first day of summer. Virgil frantically went around preparing his little farm for summer planting, finding that there was not enough time in the short days to accomplish everything he wanted to.

“…noying as you!”

“Hey, shut up. I’m busy!”

The twins looked at the couch in surprise to see Patton curled up against Virgil while Virgil worked on Thomas’s laptop. They glanced at each other, wondering what was going on, but also reminded of what they had been doing before popping up.

“Hey, since the two of you are here, can you settle something for us?” Roman asked.

“What’s up, kiddos?” Patton asked, looking over as Virgil cranked up the game’s music in response.

“Well, Remus…” Roman started off on a long-winded rant that was _rudely_ interrupted constantly by noise from whatever Virgil was doing. Finally, the prince moved over and looked at the laptop. It was some computer game around farming? Virgil opened the social tab and looked through the list, seeing how many hearts he had with Marnie.

“Oooh, ‘single’? Does that mean you can go woo some villagers?” Roman asked, grinning.

“Once you have enough friendship hearts, yeah. Then date and marry them. You can even have two children with them.” Virgil answered, closing out of the social screen.

“That looks interesting! When is it my turn?!”

“Not now.”

“But I want to play the new game!”

“You have your own computer.”

“But it’ll be a whole new game! This one is already well underway!”

“You are not messing up my farm, Princey. I’ve put a lot into it and I do not need you going in and messing things up.”

“If only we could all play together! That would be so much fun!” Patton said.

“I… well…maybe? Let me finish this day and I can check something.”

“You think there’s a way to do multiplayer!?”

“If I remember the start screen well enough, yeah.”

Patton started giggling as he jumped off the couch. “I’ll go get my laptop then! Come on, you two!”

Virgil rolled his eyes as Pat and the twins vanished back into the mindscape. He finished up his day before closing out of his farm and looking into the co-op option. He slowly figured out how to set it up and had just opened the new farm when the three of them returned with their laptops.

It took Virgil a little investing to figure out how to share it with the others but it worked out and soon they had their first crop planted. Not even three days into the game, Roman had announced his intentions of wooing Elliot, who he insisted was the most romantic NPC. Remus liked pulling trash out of their little ponds and gifting it to everyone. Patton was talking to everyone and just enjoying the game. Virgil was happy that the planting and harvesting of crops was less stressful with extra help.

****

It was too quiet. Logan liked the quiet, but it was also nerve-wracking. He knew the twins had been arguing pretty much all afternoon over Remus having released a goose into the Imagination and it had apparently chased Roman from one end to the other with a knife. Something about some game. It was still too early in the afternoon for the twins to have stopped yelling at each other. He also didn’t hear Patton singing or a movie in the background, breaking up the silence. Logan also knew that this was a bad day for Virgil, but he assumed that the anxious side fell asleep or something.

“Have you seen the trash rat?” a voice asked behind Logan.

Logan would deny the small shout and jumping as he spun to see Dee standing there, unamused. He quickly recomposed himself and straightened his tie. Dee noted that the logical side’s eyes were relieved though upon seeing him.

“Salutations, Dee. No, I have not seen Remus. I have not seen anyone in the past couple of hours, in fact.”

“Locked yourself in your room again, have you?”

“No, I have not. I was reading in the commons. I eventually noticed that everything was too calm though and went to investigate. You are the first side I have seen since.”

Dee raised an eyebrow. “Well, those four don’t have enough brain cells to open a jar with instructions right in front of them.”

“Which also concerns me.”

“Have you checked Thomas’s house, yet? The hissing cat of a side would probably place himself where he could see Thomas if the anxiety from earlier was any indication.”

Logan considered it. “No, I have not. That is a valid point though.”

“Let’s go, then.”

Logan hadn’t even fully risen up before he heard Roman screeching. He assumes that this meant the goose with a knife didn’t kill the prince in the Imagination, then. Logan noted all the sides who’d been missing, sitting around the living room on their laptops. Roman was screeching at his twin about something with hitting someone with a slingshot.

“Glad to see that you lot didn’t get yourselves lost in the mindscape.” Dee drawled.

“Shut up, I have blueberries to harvest and I already have that mess over there to ignore,” Virgil stated.

“What?” Dee and Logan responded in unison, confused.

“We’re playing a farming game! Do you two want to join?” Patton asked excitedly.

“Wiki says that multiplayer only goes up to four, Pat,” Virgil commented.

“Well, if you’re playing a game, there are bound to be mods.”

****

Thomas woke up groaning as light hit him. Blearily he glanced at the time, surprised to see that what was supposed to be a short nap turned into a full night of sleep plus some. He ran a hand through his hair, knowing that he was in for a long lecture from Logan about sleeping for 16 hours.

He got out of bed and got ready for the day, unnaturally so calm that it mildly worried him. He couldn’t even worry himself about the lack of anxiety. He finally started downstairs before the voices in the living room alerted him to the fact his sides were all present.

Thomas peeked around the wall, to see all his sides sitting around the living room on their laptops. A giant whiteboard sat in front of the TV with Logan’s scribbled handwriting all over it. On Thomas’s coffee table sat his laptop, with the game that he’d given Virgil open. It took a moment before Thomas realized what was going on, but he chuckled to himself when he did.

After taking a picture of the living room, Thomas continued downstairs as Logan stood up and went to the whiteboard. He scribbled something next to Roman’s name before coloring in a patch of squares. Thomas greeted the room. Logan was the only one to glance over to the host. Everyone else kept their eyes focused on the game, though they all muttered a greeting back.

Thomas went into the kitchen to make some breakfast. He decided on some eggs and toast. Easy, no real thought process. He opened the fridge and pulled out the egg carton. Taking an egg out, he was struck with the disappointed thought of ‘the spirits and chickens must be displeased with me today’.

The host marched into the living room and over to his anxious side. He didn’t say anything as he held the egg up to him. Virgil glanced up and noticed his host and the egg. The anxious side didn’t have anything to say, so merely shrugged.

“The spirits and chickens must be displeased then.”

“I don’t even know what that means!”

“They are displeased.”

Patton giggled. “You want to join us, Thomas?”

“We already have a cabin and character set up for you, if you would like to join our group one. Just be careful not to close the command prompt. It will shut the game down. We had to add mods to play with everyone.” Logan commented, looking over his board of information.

Thomas looked around at his living room full of sides, peacefully–or well as peacefully as he could ever hope– playing the game. Sure, the twins were bickering, but that was more of their sibling relationship than actual anger this time.

“Won’t it mess up whatever you guys already got going on?”

“Nah, Lo would just reorganize who tends to which crops. Real issue would be who you plan on dating. I’ve called Elliot, Patton is going for Sam, Remus wants Emily, Logan is after Maru, Dee wants to date Shane, and Vee is in between dating Sebastian or Abigail or even just rooming with Krobus. But if you would rather one of them, I’m sure we’d be willing to let you, our most amazing and beloved host, steal our crush.” Roman said.

“Flattery will not save you if he wants the isolated writer on the beach, kiss-up,” Dee commented.

“Statistically speaking, it is more likely that Thomas would choose one of Virgil’s choices due to the fact he is in between three choices or one of the remaining dating NPCs. Factoring in his preferences though, he is most likely to pursue Sam or Sebastian.”

“I have no idea what any of that means, but sure. I’ll join. Just let me get some breakfast.” Thomas glanced at his anxious side. “Without the spirits or whatever being disappointed. I’ll have you know that these are technically large eggs and I have no idea why that is an important factor or whatever.”

“That works. I will factor your playing into our assignments.” Logan said, setting his laptop in front of Patton. “Make sure Logic gets to be before the hard bedtime.”

Thomas laughed as he shook his head. He went back into the kitchen to make something to eat, occasionally peeking into the living room as he heard Dee try and convince Logan to give him a certain crop while the logical side rearranged the work. Thomas couldn’t help the smile as he decided that he would need to find some way to thank Talyn for this suggestion. Still, that was for later. He wasn’t getting anything other than virtual farming done today since all of his sides seemed to be intent on this.

“The spirits are very happy today.” Thomas found himself muttering, not sure what it meant but knowing that it was a good thing.


End file.
